"Don’t look at me with such a shocked expression. Do you want to surprise the bastards who framed us? Do you want us to create another land of plenty in the barren Donau Wasteland?" Richard asked.
"What do nobles rely on to form an army? Money, right? The more gold coins, the stronger the army we can assemble, right? That way, we can get justice for Helen, punish all those who disrespect us, and make everyone who ever sneered at us swallow their pride. Am I right?" Richard’s words were full of provocation.
"Well, then, let’s become bandits," said Richard, with nonchalance.
"But Richard, you’re a noble... become a bandit?" Helen looked bewildered.
"Richard, some things are too outrageous, you can’t do them," Ning Yu advised.
"You don’t have to destroy your own life because of the injustice of the temple and the prince’s trap!" Avril also said.
"Who’s destroying their life? I never had that in mind," Richard laughed heartily.
Although he said so, everybody’s face was full of confusion; his words were too shocking.
"We’re facing a major crisis right now, do you know what that it?" Richard glanced around at everyone: "How do we survive? How did we get all our livestock, food, and winter bedding this time? Ning Yu sold her jade pendant! Winter is coming. Even the bandits on the wasteland know to store resources, what about us? Even if we make it through this winter, what about after that? Have you ever thought about that?"
"We don’t have a castle, no towers or fences, we can’t even arm our militia! All these things cost money, do we have to sell jewelry again to get it?" Richard sneered.
"We could rely on animal husbandry..." Helen’s voice was getting reed-thin. With two hundred Bear Goblin slaves needing to be fed, relying solely on Vassal Clan for herding didn’t seem to make sense.
"What else can we do, besides animal husbandry, to increase the income of our territory, do we have other ways to raise income?" Richard looked at Ning Yu.
"There’s nothing left. There’s no mineral deposits in the wasteland, no forests with magical beasts. We can’t profit from mining or hunting magical beast crystal nucleus." Ning Yu had also been thinking about this these past two days, but she couldn’t figure it out.
"There are fish and shrimps in the Sanggan River, we could make some fishing nets and catch fish and shrimps. During the spring, the river is full of boundless salmon going downstream to lay eggs, plenty of them." The long-silent elder of Andulan spoke, pointing to a large bundle of salted fish in the corner: "Once winter sets in the Donau Wasteland, food becomes very scarce. We ascetics live off these salmon caught in the spring throughout the snowfall period."
"You ascetics eat meat?" Richard looked up and down at Elder Andulan’s bald head.
"Of course we eat it, what’s wrong?" The elder was puzzled, ascetics only have one constraint which is to practice self denial, why does this overlord look so surprised about it?
"Nothing, I just asked," Richard felt a bit confused, he had always seen the ascetics as the monks from his old world.
"Great idea, Elder!" Avril happily agreed: "Our Mermaid songs have a unique attraction for fish and shrimps in the water, we can definitely have a big harvest!"
"That’s in the sea, might not work in fresh water?" The little fox used a sarcastic tone. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel•fire.net
"It definitely works, I’ve heard of the renowned ’Tide-Attracting Charm Song’ of the mermaids." Ning Yu opened her eyes wide, happily noting down this excellent suggestion on her parchment.
"This is a great idea," Richard said approvingly, nodding at Avril.
"The salmon roe is delicious, didn’t we taste it at Lord Witherspoon’s banquet last time?" Avril hugged Richard’s arm, speaking joyfully.
"Unfortunately, we can’t exchange these caviar and salmon for money, the journey from here to town is a bit too far." Richard smiled: "But it’s a good suggestion and worth being rewarded!"
"Will this work? Although there’re no big forests producing valuable magical beasts, the coniferous forest at the foot of the mountain is not bad, we can cut timber, we can also hunt! Occasionally, we can go to the Southern Cross Star Forest to hunt for magical beasts, although it’s a bit far." Helen also reluctantly put forward her own opinion.
"Wood can be used for building castles and corrals. We have slaves, and we don’t need to pay wages, so we can build our castle without spending any money." Ning Yu happily marked down another note on the parchment.
The atmosphere suddenly became lively from being gloomy.
Even the mantises preparing the tea at the side joined in: "Although the soil quality on the Donau Wasteland is poor, and unfit for humans to planting oats, sweet potatoes can still grow here. If we put in a little effort, we should be able to have sweet potato bread soon."
"Right, right, right!"
"Stop! After all that’s been said, I haven’t found a single idea for making money." Richard threw a bucket of cold water on the excited crowd: "Are you guys still only focusing on how to fill your bellies? I need a way to make money, you guys don’t need to worry about filling your bellies."